The role of the interface of sport and tourism in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

This feature editorial discusses the role of the interface of sport and tourism in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Key concepts are set out as context for discussion under two headings. Under Sports Fixtures and Events: a parochial attitude to cancelling major sports events; the impact of recreated and relived sports events on wellbeing; the response of sports audiences to live sport behind closed doors. Under Activity, Movement and Travel: the appetite and provision for outdoor activity during lockdown, and the role of a sense of movement; the factors that might lead to observed increases in sustainable modes of travel being sustained post-lockdown. Lessons and questions for future research, policy and provision are discussed, and the potential is identified for activities at the interface of sport and tourism to make significant contributions to outcomes and policy goals for wellbeing, physical health, mental health, and in supporting green space and sustainable travel as a response to the climate crisis. A challenge is set for managers, administrators and researchers working at the interface of sport and tourism to look outwards beyond their own development concerns, and recognise and accept both a responsibility and an opportunity to make these contributions. The feature editorial concludes with an invitation for researchers to take up the challenge of submitting research to the Journal of Sport & Tourism that either focuses on the contribution to the COVID-19 response, or that explores contributions that can be made to wider social, economic and health outcomes and policy goals.

Supplemental tourism activities: a conceptual framework to maximise sport tourism benefits and opportunities

“…By developing a more complete understanding of the associations between sport tourism and supplemental tourism activities, the benefits of this form of tourism can be harnessed not only to maximise tourism benefits and opportunities, but also to support the tourism recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, given that sport tourism closer to and around home (everyday sport tourism) has become popular during the COVID-19 pandemic (Weed, 2020), supplemental tourism activities before and after everyday sport tourism will be more important for tourism recovery. As sport tourism has in the past been recognised as a very resilient form of tourism following events such as the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11th, 2001(World Tourism Organisation, 2001, it is also expected to play a pivotal role in the recovery of the tourism industry after the COVID-19 pandemic.…”

Relationships of involvement and interdependent happiness across a revised Masters Games participant typology

“…Prior to the hypotheses testing, these four Masters Games groups were created based on the importance-performance analysis (Lai & Hitchcock, 2015;Martilla & James, 1977). This subjective typology of Masters Games participants goes beyond their tourism behaviours and overcomes limitations of the objective typologies of Nogawa et al (1996), Ito and Kono (2019), and Gillett and Kelly (2006) including the distinction between tourists and excursionists (Higham & Hinch, 2018;Weed, 2009;Weed & Bull, 2009). By using this psycho-social typology of Masters Games participants, the multiple regression analyses were conducted, which indicated both similarities and differences in the relationships between involvement and interdependent happiness across the four groups.…”

“…Weed and Bull (2009) concurred with this proposition by stating that there has been a willingness to extend the definition of tourism to include day trips. This reflects a terminological shift to 'sport tourism' from 'sport holidays' in the field, as day trips are recognised as a significant element of the former but not of the latter (Weed, 2009). Additionally, under the COVID-19 pandemic, sport tourism closer to and around home (everyday sport tourism) including cycle day trips has attracted attention in the UK (Weed, 2020).…”

Towards a comprehensive understanding of football stadium tourism

“…Third, big data analytics is a rapidly evolving field of research and future research could compare alternative LDA algorithms and accompanying techniques such as number of topic (dimension) and hyperparameters (alpha and beta) optimisation. Fourth, at the time of writing, many sporting events have been cancelled (Weed, 2020) and football stadia closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is thus timely to ask how the economic viability of football clubs and stadia will be affected during this prolonged shutdown.…”